Introduction to Practical Microbiology

Offered By: The British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy via FutureLearn

Course Description

Overview

Learn about the basics of microbiology and clinical pharmacology

On this four-week course, you’ll discover the basic concepts of microbiology from a practical perspective.

Get to know how to identify microbes, what antimicrobial resistance is, and how you can analyse and interpret data in a laboratory setting, as well as advice for both low and higher resource settings.

Build a foundation in microbiology practices

This course teaches you about all the basic concepts of microbiology. Develop a solid foundation base for further study and practice in the field of microbiology by learning how to define microbes, antimicrobials, and antibiotics. Confidently navigate every basic topic, name, principle, and process of microbiology.

By the end of this course, you won’t just have a confident understanding of the classification, structure, and roles of microbes, but will also be familiar with their laboratory identification and the common sites of infection.

Discover the concepts of antimicrobial stewardship and antimicrobial resistance (AMR)

On this course you’ll learn how to define antimicrobial resistance, its mechanisms, drivers, and co-resistance. Learn how microbes and antimicrobials work, and how antimicrobial resistance (AMR) happens.

Discover the basic concepts of ‘superbugs’, and analyse the results of Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing (AST), including their different breaking points, cut-off settings, and their application in the clinical context.

Learn antimicrobial laboratory techniques

Decipher how to take samples and specimens to detect microbes, as well as methods to study antimicrobial susceptibility in the laboratory setting.

Learn to compare bactericidal and bacteriostatic substances, see how they move through the body by studying PK/PD models, and learn how to increase the efficacy of antimicrobials based on the results.

This course is for healthcare professionals, laboratory personnel, anti-infectives commercial staff, researchers, students or others in training.

The course is intended for those with some basic knowledge of microbiology, but this is not a prerequisite.

Syllabus

Microbes, Resistance and Stewardship

Welcome to the course
Introducing Antimicrobial Stewardship
Microbes - classification, structure and roles
End of week 1

Antimicrobials: What are they and how do they work?

Introducing antimicrobials
Antimicrobials and their properties
End of week 2

Antimicrobial Resistance and 'Superbugs'

Defining Antimicrobial Resistance
How resistance occurs
The development of ‘superbugs’
End of Week 3

The Role of the Laboratory in AMS

Introducing the laboratory
Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing
Summarising Antimicrobial Stewardship
End of course

Taught by

Nick Brown